My wealth is in the cross, there’s nothing more I want than just to know his love. My heart is set on Christ and I will count all else as loss. The greatest of my crowns means nothing to me now
Hillsong Worship
Preparation. A lot of that seems to go into the months leading up to something like the World Race. There are a few different kinds of preparation that go into getting ready for the Race. There is physical preparation that includes buying all of the gear you will need for this 11 month journey along with building up the endurance to be able to carry 11 months worth of stuff. There is also the financial preparation that goes into this. Little fun fact: I have to raise $18,000 to go on the World Race, and I need your help to do that! There is also spiritual preparation when getting ready for 11 months of mission work.
Along with all of this preparation, God has been teaching me things as I get ready to embark. Some are little things, while others are quite large. Do I have any idea how to leave my family, friends, dogs and Chick-fil-A for 11 months? Nope. Not at all, but here we go right?
Believe it or not, I have never been much of a camper. I went “camping” once with my high school boyfriend and his family, but I stayed in the cabin, while everyone else stayed in tents. And then I went camping twice in college with my friends and one of their families, but I needed no knowledge of tents, sleeping bags, internal frame backpacks or anything else to go on this camping trip. My friend’s family had everything set up for us by the time we arrived, so all I had to do was show up and embrace their hospitality for three days – still very, very grateful for this and for them. So all of that being said, trying to learn what to buy and what to pack for the Race, where my entire life for 11 months needs to fit into a 70L backpack, has been quite a learning experience for me.
One of the biggest things that I didn’t expect to be learning at this point in my life is confidence. Up until this point, I thought I was doing great on the confidence scale. I could go out in public with a little bit of makeup on, and my hair half way decent and I would be feeling great. I would never leave the house without makeup on if I was planning on seeing someone I knew, just out of habit because I had been wearing makeup since I was 13, although I didn’t attribute that to a confidence thing. I also would never leave the house without taking a shower. I always felt the need to be clean and somewhat presentable to those around me.
None of this crossed my mind as a problem when I first was thinking about applying for or got accepted to the World Race either. People always said that they only wore makeup occasionally on the Race even if they wore it all the time at home and I continually thought to myself that I would cross that bridge when I got to it. I had also heard multiple times that the Race is very much like your life at home, just in another country, so no change and not too challenging right? Wrong.
Over the last month or so, as squads have gone to Training Camp and Launch, I have been learning that not everything I do next year will be normal (already knew that on the surface, but didn’t actually know that deep down). I may go two or three days without showering, and then take a bucket shower instead of a normal shower. My hair will be greasy and that is something I need to figure out how to work with – I think braids will become my new best friend. I will go more days without makeup than I will with.
All of that was really hard for me to come to terms with. I’m still working on some of it, but God has shown me a lot over the last few weeks. My worth does not come from my hair and makeup being just right, it comes from the Lord and from Christ living within me. My hair can be a greasy mess or it can have perfect spiral curls and I will still be the same in front of the Lord. Am I 100% confident in that yet? No, but I am definitely moving in the right direction, and I am so very thankful for that.
